Bill McCartney, former football coach of the University of Colorado Buffaloes, who led the team to a 1990 National championship, pictured in this 2010 file photo.

For the record, my commentary in the paper on Wednesday[1] was written and filed before Bill McCartney started making the media rounds with his open letter and other statements on Tuesday, and we inserted a brief reference to it. I tried to address the issues involved with some nuance, and I’ve noticed a few and heard from a few who didn’t take the time to try and digest it as an attempt at thoughtful comment and allowing others to speak up — most notably Floyd Keith and Fitz Hill — and at least raise questions. That’s where today’s trends — pick out an extreme and scream, or reduce everything to either/or — discourage reasonable discourse.

I made it clear I despise The Race Card when lamely and automatically summoned, and that’s not going to change. I’ve even touched on the subject in a book, saying I believe we’re past the point of keeping score of fairness with a calculator, but should he relying on fairness and what’s right, plus instinctive diversity rather than mandated and categorization.

I bring that up because I think those modern standards come into play when comparing Bill McCartney’s and Jon Embree’s tenures at CU.

I’ve asked many times what it would have been like if today’s conditions existed during McCartney’s early seasons here. It’s an absolute myth — or even a lie — that fans supported “Mac” in his early struggles, especially in his 1-10 third season, or that they generally made it clear they had faith in his ability to turn around the program. The revisionist history about that, in fact, has been galling.

With today’s conditions, with more outlets for the expression of dissatisfaction and criticism, he would have been fired after three seasons. I have no doubt about that. None. There was grousing at the time that he was a Michigan defensive coordinator in over his head as a head coach. That wouldn’t have made it right, and in fact, it would have been unwise and wrong, but that’s what would have happened.

CU didn’t stick with him then because he was white. CU stuck with him then because university officials believed it was the right thing to do in a different time, when coaches were paid far less; when the pressures, while certainly significant, weren’t as great; and when there were fewer outlets for criticism and even then was given less weight. It would have been different for Coach McCartney under today’s conditions.

I don’t think Colorado gave Jon Embree enough time. I’ll stand by what I said at the time of his firing[2]. It’s dishonorable, it’s unfair, it’s not right. Coaches deserve four years, at least, to attempt to turn around down programs, and not giving it to them tells anyone taking over struggling programs to take every shortcut possible, regardless of how unseemly. But that’s more about today’s conditions — conditions on several fronts — that I don’t like than it is about whether the coach is white or black. Now, I did bring race into play with today’s column, but those open-minded enough to read it consider it “provocative” in the sense of provoking thought with some different angles should have come away knowing it wasn’t reducing this to only a racial issue.

Later in the day, or perhaps tomorrow, I’m going to post another piece, discussing my commununication with a long-time friend, the first black assistant coach in what was then the Pacific Eight Conference.